1. Field of the Invention
This application relates to enhancing data transmission. More particularly, this application relates to systems and methods which enhance data transmission rates by utilizing adaptive, weighted, hierarchical scheduling techniques.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Many computer systems include multiple data processors or processes which need to share information. For example, a system may include a large central processing unit which shares information with a less powerful secondary processor in the system that is used to perform certain specified tasks within the system. Data transmitted between the two processors typically is sent in a data queue. Typically, the bandwidth and processor time available to the data queue is limited, which means that when large amounts of data need to be transmitted between the processors, the data transmission may be delayed because the amount of data to be transmitted exceeds the available bandwidth. This delay is called data latency.
In many cases, some of the data to be transmitted between the processor has great significance and urgency, while other data is not as important. As a result, it is desirable to reduce the latency of important data, even if it means increasing the delay in transmitting the less important data. Various techniques for ensuring the prompt transmission of urgent and high priority data have been proposed. These techniques include utilizing weighted round robin scheduling algorithms to adjust scheduling weights based on current traffic conditions in the data queue. However these techniques generally suffer from various shortcomings including the inability to provide proportional adjustment of queue size based on levels of traffic and the inability to reallocate bandwidth to significant service queues. Accordingly, it would be an advancement in the art to provide a scheduling and data queuing solution which addresses these and other shortcomings.